Once again, I returned to Hustler to try my hand at their tournament.  This time, it’s the Oktoberfest $500 buy-in no limit tournament, with 7,500 in starting chips, and 40 minute rounds.

This is the type of tournament structure that I like because it gives you plenty of time to make your moves, and you can make 2 or 3 small mistakes, or even 1 big mistake and still have enough chips to play.

Before the tournament, I decided my strategy was going to be to play a lot of pots and try to accumulate chips to push people around in the later rounds.

In the first round of play, I limped in with 6, 9 and 3 others were in the pot with me.  The flop was 9, 5, 3 rainbow.  One guy bet 200, and everyone folded to me and I just called with my 6 kicker.

The turn was the 8 which put the second diamond on the board, giving me top pair and now a flush draw.  The guy checks and I bet 350, now feeling better about my 6 kicker.  That lasted about a second because he check raises me to 1,350.

I had played long enough at the table to notice that this guy was pretty tight and didn’t look like a guy that would bluff this early in the tournament.  I wasn’t sure exactly where I was, but I felt pretty sure he wasn’t on a flush draw so my 9 high flush would be good if I hit it.

The river was the 3 giving me a flush.  However, the guy comes out betting 1,000.  Since I hit a back-door flush, I felt I could get some value out of raising and made it 3,000.  He thought it over for 3 seconds and called.  I showed my flush and he flips over pocket 8s for a full boat.

Whoops.  Crap.  I made 2 mistakes in one hand.  First, I should have raised on the flop and he would have probably folded.  Then on the river when the board paired 3s, I should have just called the 1,000.

This put me in a big hole but I wasn’t out yet.  Unfortunately, the same guy got pocket Kings when I got pocket Jacks, and I lost more chips.  Amazingly, I was able to get away from my pocket Jacks pre-flop so I didn’t lose all my remaining chips.

Eventually, I had to make a big bluff to try to get some chips and the move failed and I was out.

I’m not really sure if my original plan was a good one or not.  Perhaps playing 6, 9 suited got me in the trouble that I got into.  If I was playing tight, I would not have even played that hand.

In any case, I’m going to try again next Sunday for their $1,500 buy-in.  Wish me luck. I’ll need it.

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